Dark Mark
by ThatJamesGuy
Summary: Set in Post-Books Tulsa House of Night. A new fledgling is marked but it doesn't seem like he likes the idea of becoming a vampyre-or dying for that matter-and the whole changing thing that came with it. (Fleshed Out Summary Inside)
1. Chapter 1

Set in Post-Books Tulsa House of Night.

A new fledgling is marked but it doesn't seem like he likes the idea of becoming a vampyre-or dying for that matter-and the whole changing thing that came with it.

Meet Mark, the newest fledgling at the House of Night, oh, but what's with his weird mark? Why is it all black and filled in like that? Does it mean something? Is he going to die? Is he the next Zoey Redbird?

No one seemed to know. Maybe it was his harsh abhorrence to the goddess and all things vampyre. In any case, it looked like Tulsa had another weirdo filled-in-mark having fledging again...

I never saw the need for disclaimers on . It's **FAN FICTION**.net, not **ORGINAL STORIES THAT YOU SHOULD SUE US FOR**.net.

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><p>Chapter One<br>Poisoned

In the usually silent infirmary now lay two injured men, or rather, one injured man. The other was seemingly unhurt, though by the fight he threw, one might assume he was held there against his will.

The first, quiet man was lying face up, hands over his stomach, wearing a dark, covert sort of uniform one might picture on spies. His mask was very mysterious and masquerade-like and seemed to hide his identity completely, of course, that wasn't actually a mask. Upon closer inspection, one would realize that it was just a very convincing sapphire tattoo. He was a tracker, a vampyre sent out to mark those youngsters that were foretold to become one of the children of the night.

There was a bandage over his chest and stomach, covering several holes made by a very powerful rifle. Clearly, it had been a surprise attack, since surely no teenager would pack heat, let alone try and fight a vampyre.

He'd been wrong, of course.

The man on the other side of the room, being restrained by several adult vampyres, including the head nurse and all her supporting staff, the fencing teacher, and the High Priestess.

"Let me go, you greedy, talent stealing, fang fucking freaks!" The new fledgling snapped, managing to lift his back off the bed, knocking one of the nurses to the ground with a soft 'omf!'.

"Calm down!" The High Priestess huffed, trying to hold down the teen's shoulders. "Y-You're safe now!"

"Safe, my ass! I want a lawyer! You can't keep me here!" The boy shrieked, his fighting becoming more desperate and violent.

"You're… you're giving us no choice but to sedate you!" Cried the fencing professor as the fallen nurse hurried to get the proper medicine.

She returned, the boy still screaming about his rights and so forth, with needle in hand. "On the count of three, we all hold him down at once!" The High Priestess hissed at her fellows.

"One!"

"You can't do this!" The teen shrieked, his eyes widening as he squirmed more, hitting the fencing teacher square in the face with his foot. "YOU CAN'T DO THIS!"

"Two!"

"HELP!" The boy started to claw at anything he could reach, fear gripping his stomach and mind like a chilled, unpleasant creature. "HELP ME, PLEASE!"

"THREE!" All the vampyres pushed down at once, forcibly pressing the child to the bed as the fallen nurse took the opportunity and shoved the needle into her patient. The clear, smoky liquid within disappeared into the fledging and soon his struggles died as he passed out.

The fencing teacher stood up straight, sighing as he rubbed his cheek. "…That boy has quite a kick." He chuckled, looking at his High Priestess.

She smiled, "Hopefully he'll be less… stubborn when he wakes up."

"Stubborn." He smirked, "That's the word for it."

The woman turned to her nurses. "I trust that you can take care of him from here?" She asked. They nodded.

The Priestess nodded, waving her friend to the door and the two of them left the ward.

The fencing professor was tall, with a cute face and soft curls that were held back in a tight ponytail. His bright eyes only helped him look alert and intelligent. The markings on his face took the form of a book, odd, large words written in a strange, almost illegible handwriting twisting and turning into the shape framing his eyes. In the middle was, of course, the tell-tale mark of the vampyre; a crescent moon.

The High Priestess was a little shorter than her friend, her own dark hair hanging along her back. Her high cheek bones gave away her ethnicity, and that of her Cherokee background. She wore a simple outfit, a lovely dress that decorated her curves accordingly. Her shoulders and some of her back were revealed, showing off the intricate designs covering nearly her entire body, making her look exotic and goddess-like. They seemed to take on the shapes of little runes and nameless forms that created a spectacular look.

"We're going to have to warn the twins and Stevie-Rae about this student." Damien muttered tentatively, "He could cause trouble in their classes."

"Yes." Zoey sighed, "We might as well warn everyone. I'll let Lenobia and Erik know about his little… ah, issue with vampyres."

"Alright, we'll get everyone else." The professor smiled as they entered the faculty office.

"Ya'll took your damn time getting back!" Sprang an okie twang from the darker side of the room. A blond tornado of a woman came striding forward, her red markings looking like something straight out of the south. "I had to hear from one of the students that they saw a tracker being pulled in here! Bleedin'!" She burst.

"Calm down, he's fine. The fledgling he marked evidentially didn't want to be marked." Zoey explained.

"Z," Came a voice from the other side of the room. A white girl with bright blond hair and bright blue eyes came forward with what might have been her complete opposite. The other was the latte brown to her white, and the black to her blond.

"Come on," The woman continued, "No one,"

"Wants to get marked." The darker skinned woman finished.

"Yes." Zoey huffed, "But not every fledgling shoots their tracker. Hell, I didn't even give mine a second thought after I was marked."

"Neither did I." Damien agreed. "The fact that he could stand up straight and awake long enough to unload a few shots astounds me."

"Are we gunna keep him?" Stevie-Rae frowned, "Seems a little violent to keep at the Tulsa House of Night…"

"Stevie-Rae." Erin frowned, "Half your students are too violent to keep."

"But we do anyway." Shaunee added.

The southern woman huffed but remained silent.

"Anyway," Zoey smiled, "We're keeping him here, he just needs to get used to the whole new life thing. It isn't that ha-"

"Zoey!" A man's voice cried as he threw open the doors to the staff room. "I just saw a bloody vampyre get pulled into the infirmary, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Erik." The High Priestess smiled, "He's fine, too. Our new fledgling got a little carried away defending himself." She explained.

The dark haired, tall, incredibly gorgeous vampyre sighed, walking into the room to slide into a chair. "He attacked the tracker?"

"Unorthodox, isn't it?" Damien shrugged, "Besides the thrashing and squirming, he seemed like he was just afraid. I agree with Zoey on this one. He's a good kid, he was just scared."

The twins snorted as Stevie-Rae muttered, "If ya'll say so…"

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><p>Read and Review :D<p>

Thaaaaaanks for reading. Yeah, yeah. My first chapters are always short. I wanted to get this out there and ready to go already!

**Review challenges!**

**Who were your favourite characters in the original House of Night series that you might like to see as adults in this one?** I can't bring back characters from the dead, so sadly **(SPOILER)** Jack is still dead. ;-; I loved him so much.

**Do you have any questions? Did this beginning make you want to read more?**

Believe it or not,** I actually want to hear what you have to say.** (Unless it's needlessly mean and/or rude.)

There'll be **more review questions** in later chapters when you learn some more bits about everything, **so watch out for that**!

PS, I named the story "Dark mark" partly because of my obsession with Harry Potter and the title made me laugh a lot harder, and a lot longer than it should have.

So there you go, inside joke.


	2. Chapter 2

Pain slithered across the young fledgling's body as he whined. His body was covered in sweat, soaking the bed and clothes. It was the middle of the day, so no one was there to watch this strange show. The room was silent, only the sounds of his faint squirming could be heard through the dark, windowless room. His bed was the farthest one from the door, presumably so he wouldn't attack anyone trying to bring in a new patient.

The board at the end of his bed read a number of things, how long he'd been there, what medications he was on, how old he was as a fledgling, and of course, his name. Mark Williams. Later, perhaps he might find the fact that Mark got marked funny.

His eyebrows creased around his sapphire outlined crescent moon. His mouth opened, and he let out a moan of pain. A bubble formed on his forehead, popped, disappeared. Then another appeared, and another. The skin slowly seemed to burn and fizzle into the black colour of tar. His mark seemed to be poisoned, and soon filled in with that black bubbling tar, even the outline had turned dark.

Once the change was completed, he relaxed. His mouth closed, his eyebrows spread flat, his breathing returned to normal. All was silent once more.

The following morning left Mark rudely awakened by one of the nurses surprised screams of shock. He hissed a curse at her as he sat up, holding his forehead. God, he had a horrid headache. What the fuck had happened yesterday? Did he get absolutely smashed and decide that stair-surfing was a good idea?

…Oh, right. He felt for the tattoo marking on his forehead and sighed. He was now the thing he'd been fighting against since he'd learned about their so called talent.

He sighed, well, there was nothing for it now. He was either going to die, or he was going to become a vampyre. He wished they'd had the decency to at least spell the damn word right. There really shouldn't be a 'y' in there. It looks stupid and if you actually said it correctly, it also sounded stupid. It was even a pain to spell like that.

Mark slowly stood off the bed, smirking to himself when the nurse jumped and readied herself for a fight. Geez, he was hungry. When was the last time he'd eaten? He fumbled forward and almost fell. He clutched the bed opposite him in the hopes to save himself. He pushed himself upright once more.

"You should be resting." The nurse advised with a frown.

"You should fuck off." Mark replied simply. "I'm hungry, in pain, and pissed. I'd like to deal with at least one of those problems."

The nurse heaved a sigh before helping him back onto his bed. Her eyes met the young fledgling's new mark and she froze, staring at it for a moment.

"Stay here and I'll get your mentor." She muttered, "They'll bring you to some food." She hurried off before Mark could refuse.

He wouldn't have anyway. He'd researched the whole vampyre school life thing that they had going on in all the House of Nights. He knew he'd have a mentor and he knew he'd have to deal with them. He also knew he'd probably have a Nyx-loving, average-teenage, annoying, lady-obsessed roommate, too. Fucking grand.

She returned shortly, helping him stand before he slapped her hands away and stood on his own. "I'm a vampyre, right? Shouldn't I have some amazing ability to heal or some shit?"

"…Yes, actually." The nurse hissed curtly. "You should be more grateful. The great goddess Nyx has chosen you-"

He snorted, and she glared at the fledgling.

Soon, his mentor walked into the room, in all her southern glory.

Stevie-Rae frowned was she joined the twosome. "Ya'll called?"

Mark glared at his mentor, feeling a growing sense of hatred toward the woman. Stevie-Rae returned the stare, though she seemed to be looking at a spot just above Mark's eyes. She would have to talk to Zoey about that… strange mark later. She didn't really see a point in bringing it up now, and possibly make Mark have another violent fit.

"Yes, it seems Mark here is feeling good enough to eat." The nurse stated harshly, breaking the staring contest. Apparently, he'd over stayed his welcome. Just fine with him.

"Oh, well…" She looked at the young man, "…What do you want to eat?"

"Fucking anything, at this point." Mark hissed, making the blond woman frown. "Well… alright." She muttered, turning to lead Mark through the halls of the school, leaving behind the rather disgruntled nurse.

"…This would be cool, if I hadn't been forced to live here against my will." Mark mumbled, looking at the castle walls.

"You don't have to live here." Stevie-Rae frowned.

"Yeah," he snorted, "Because I'm in a big hurry to die."

Her frown grew more pronounced. "Why is it that you don't like vampyres, Mark?"

"They way they hold themselves." Mark started, "The fact that they think they're so fucking talented."

"Well… isn't that true? I've only ever met talented vampyres." Stevie-Rae muttered, looking at her fledgling.

His face darkened, "Haven't you ever thought about how those people would have been if they'd remained human? They'd be just as talented, wouldn't they? It's not the mark that makes the talented vampyre, it's the human before the mark that makes the talented vampyre." He hissed, "I learned about vampyres and their supposed goddess given talents and exceptional abilities when I was a child. From that point on I'd dedicated my life to being just as good as any vampyre in the things I have talent in.' He laughed humorlessly, "But then I got marked, and I can't do anything about it."

"Oh." The professor's eyebrows creased as she looked forward, "Well, now you can prove how good of a vampyre you will be."

"If I don't die horrifically." Mark snapped, "And I don't want to be turned into one of _you._" He added harshly. "If I'm not good enough for your goddess the first time, then I won't force my company upon her fellows."

"…You're a very unhappy person." Stevie-Rae stated simply, making Mark laugh.

"Only around people I don't like." He purred.

They reached a set of old wooden doors, the sounds of students eating, talking and laughing. Stevie-Rae gave the fledgling a sideways glance, eyeing his odd marking. She debated about letting him know. The other fledglings would surely talk to him about it, though on the other hand, he'd probably get really mad and yell at her if he thought they'd done something to him to make him more vampyre-like… or something.

She sighed, "The food is all in the kitchen, eat whatever you want." She explained, "I'll return to introduce you to your roommate. I just need to speak to the High Priestess."

"I suppose letting me eat anything I want is somehow supposed to make up for the fact that my life has essentially been raped by your entire species?" Mark snorted, "Whatever. Don't bother coming back. I'd rather sleep in the hall than share a room with some shiteating waste of space."

The vampyre gave an angry huff. This child would be a pain to work with. She turned on her heel and stomped away.

Mark sighed. She didn't actually seem all that bad, but what had been forced upon him was unforgivable… at least for now. He pushed open the doors, ignoring the few people that looked up to see who'd walked in. He walked straight to the kitchen, taking the route that had the least amount of people at tables.

A boy had stood up when he walked passed, following him into the kitchen. Mark ignored him as he opened up one of the many cupboards to reveal several boxes of cereal. He ignored them and moved to the fridge, opening it and searching until he found milk. He poured himself a glass and found some bread, making some toast.

"Hey there, are you the guy that came in with the injured tracker?" The boy asked.

Mark huffed, turning to get a better look at his stalker. The boy was taller than him, with a good-fellow stupid kind of face. He looked like the poster child for 'ignorance is bliss', having a dopey smile that made him look Disney-worthy. He wore a pair of jeans and a simple t-shirt, with a jacket over it with a weird little decoration on it. His mark was the same as Mark's, a sapphire crescent moon. It was partially covered by his curly blond hair. He had to admit his eyes were kind of cool, he'd always liked green eyes, even if they were mostly brown.

"…Yes I am." The older boy cocked an eyebrow at the taller fledgling. "Why?"

"I'm your roommate!" The boy grinned, looking even more childlike.

Oh sweet Jesus no.

"Ah… that's good to know." Mark smiled, or at least he tried to, it was really more of a grimace. "…But, unfortunately, I was given other living quarters."

The boy's face crumbled into sad puppy-dog sort of expression. "…Really?" He pouted.

"Yes." The black haired teen huffed, "Now, if you'll excuse me-"

"Is it because of your weird mark?" The taller teen asked.

"What?"

"I mean, I'd be okay with it. Maybe you'll be like our High Priestess! She had a weird mark, too! It would be totally cool to be your friend if that happened!" He blinked a few times before his face heated, "I mean… it would be cool to be your friend anyway…"

Mark felt his eye twitch. He walked over to the bathroom by the exit into the cafeteria and looked in the mirror.

It _was_ weird. Filled in, and black… he sighed. Of course something like this would happen to him. He couldn't just be a normal fledgling, he had to be special and get attention. Unwanted attention.

"…Did you… not know?" The boy asked from the door, looking at Mark with a slight, worried frown. "I'm sorry."

"How old are you, again?" Mark turned to the other teen, who jumped.

"…I'm seventeen."

The younger teen frowned. Seventeen? He could have sworn he was fifteen or something. Mark sighed. He was sixteen. This… metrosexual boy-band bitch was taller and older. Made him feel just great about himself.

"Well… _you, _I'd appreciate it if you just brushed off my mark and… actually, refrained from talking to me at all." The dark haired fledgling huffed.

The seventeen year old looked as if he was about to cry. Fuck.

"…But… why? Is it something I said?" He frowned, "Is it because I'm… so…"

"Girly?"

"Yeah, I can't help it, I just am. Maybe it's because both my parents are women, maybe I'm just like that, but…" The older boy sniffed.

Mark frowned and glared at the taller teen. He was so innocent it burned. With a sigh, "…It's not because I dislike you, I just don't like… anything to do with vampyres."

"...Really?" He perked up.

"…Yes, really." Mark huffed, "…And I… lied about living somewhere else. I'm still your roommate."

He squealed. Honest to god, he did.

He ran over and hugged Mark, making the younger cringe. "Fuck! Don't touch me!" He hissed, making the older teen laugh and pull away. "You're like my cat." He grinned, "Half the time, I think he hates me, too."

"…Smart cat." Mark muttered quietly. "So what's your name, kid?"

"Harold." The older teen grinned.

"…Harold." Mark sighed, wiping his face in a sort of weak form of disbelief. "Alright, how about I just call you something less…" he frowned, "I'll just call you Harry, kay?"

"Can I call you Marry?!" Harold burst.

"…No." The younger fledgling sighed, "If I'm going to room with you, you've got to understand some things. First, I hate anything that has to do with vampyres. Needless to say, I'll hate everyone here. I made it my life's work to be better than a vampyre, so this is kind of like your goddess's way of shitting in my mouth."

"…Ew." Harry frowned.

"Second, I don't like… touchy, feely… huggy shit. Don't do it." He paused, "I also don't like cats. I've always been more of dog person."

The older boy nodded, smiling widely.

The weird fledgling huffed, resting his hands on his hips. "You're just a happy little bundle of rainbows, aren't you?" He muttered.

"I believe that everyone's a good person, somewhere." Harry paused, "…Like, you're scrooge, but for vampyres instead of Christmas."

Mark sighed, massaging his temples. "Yeah, alright. Scrooge. Whatever. Where am I living anyway?"

"In the boys' dorms."

"…Yes." The weirdly marked fledgling shook his head. "Where is it?"

"Oh." The blond frowned, "Well, I can show you after you eat." He shrugged, "It's outside."

Mark sighed and nodded, taking a bite out of his toast.

Immediately, he gagged, having to lean over the sink as vomit practically flew from his body. Harry squeaked, saying something about getting someone before he ran off suddenly.

Was he… going to die already? Isn't that what kids here did? When they got sick, they died? The dark haired teen rested a hand on his forehead as he tried to calm his suddenly churning stomach. Clearly, the goddess must've gotten tired of him talking smack about her.

Finally.

He would be able to leave this mess. He wouldn't even have to put up with Harold and his grumpy scrooge-cat.

…Though, he did seem like a nice kid, overall. He snorted to himself at how fast he'd started feeling more friendly toward the women-raised boy.

He opened his eyes. Ah, so vampyres didn't disintegrate anything they ate as humans upon marking. Good to know. The smell was awful, making him lift his head.

Bad idea.

His head swam and he ended up over the sink again.

By the time Stevie-Rae and that damned High Priestess showed up, He was already dry heaving nothing into the toilet, having already puked up lung. Ah, not literally, thankfully.

"Oh my goodness!" Stevie-Rae twanged as she hurried over, pulling Mark's hair away from his face. "…I don't see any blood." She frowned.

"What was he doing before he started puking?" Zoey asked Harry, who was nervously hovering around the doorway.

Harry fidgeted, looking uneasy and pale. "Well… h-he was talking, and then he ate some food and started throwing up…" He explained softly.

The vampyre found the forgotten piece of toast, picking it up to look it over, presumably trying to find any mold or anything else that might have caused such an instant reaction. She frowned, looking down at Mark.

Mark. She stared. His mark was different. Maybe… he…

She rushed off, telling Stevie-Rae to get Mark cleaned up and bring him to his dorm, because she had to test something.

Later, Mark sat on his new bed, glaring at his mentor and roommate, who sat on the bed opposite.

The two sides of the room were polar opposites.

On Harry's side were many posters of popular games, anime's and what looked like Disney films. His furniture was all clearly picked out by his mom, all pale wood that matched together without looking very expensive. His bedding was of Woody and those toy story characters. His lamp looked suspiciously like Pixar's little mascot… lamp.

The other half was decidedly darker. Dark bedspread, dark tables, tiny little green lamp, and an assortment of incredibly fluffy pillows, as well as a well-stocked bookcase.

The High Priestess knocked softly on the door before she came in, a bottle in her hand. Of what it held, no one could tell because the bottle was made of metal and painted chrome blue. He knew there was some kind of liquid because it shlopped around inside.

She stood next to Mark, offering him the bottle. "Try drinking a little bit of this. I want to see if your mark altered you in any way."

"Like I'd drink anything you give me." Mark slapped the bottle away, knocking it to the floor.

Zoey sighed, reaching down to pick it up. "You know, we've been nothing but nice to you and all you do is complain, you could be a little kinder toward us, it wouldn't hu-" She was cut off when Mark snapped a hand to her wrist, stopping her from grabbing the bottle.

His body was stiff as a board as he stared down at the bottle, breathing deeply. There was a smell coming from it. An intoxicating, inviting, dark smell. Like the touch of flesh in a darkly lit room. He reached over and grabbed it. The seal had broken on the bottle, leaving it partially open. He opened it like a kid opening a Christmas present he thought was breakable, being so careful that it might explode, but moving as fast as he dared to get at the contents. Once opened, the smell exploded in the room, leaving him shivering with need to get at the dark liquid inside.

Without a second thought, he tilted his head back and downed it, trying desperately to make gravity work faster, shoving his tongue in the bottle to get as much as he could. The flavor was sweet, warm and… it completed him somehow, as if a little part of himself had been stripped away, and he hadn't known it wasn't there until he got it back. He shuddered, a small feeling of emptiness growing in his gut. The liquid hadn't been quite right, like it was missing something, or maybe it wasn't the right container to drink from.

He dropped the bottle and sat up, looking at his shaky hands in a sort of shock. "…What the fuck was in that bottle?" he asked, his voice hoarse. Zoey smiled sadly, as if she hadn't wanted to be right. "…Blood." She answered simply.

It was like his heart had stopped. He felt dirty, disgusting. He'd felt so drawn to the liquid life of something he used to be. It was almost funny how he'd need to depend on the thing he'd wanted to stay. Human's never had to depend on vampyres. He was turning into a worse creature than he'd expected. He'd done his research, fledglings aren't supposed to get bloodlust until they were older into the change. Much older.

What kind of sick, twisted joke was their goddess pulling?

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><p>REVIEW CHALLENGE:<p>

What do you think of Harry?

How about what I did with the original crew?

How do you feel about Mark? (He's not very likable right now for a reason.)

I can't decide where exactly I should go with this story. I know what I want from it, but I'm not sure if I want to focus on romance, or adventure as the main genre. (Romance will get more porn, adventure will get more... ah, I don't know yet.)

Sorry it took so long, but I wanted to get a bigger chapter out, and I'm in the process of moving house. I live with a dog now :D  
>She's so cute. She's a black lab corgi. Yeah. yeah. the corgi was the mom. Yup.

If you want to see pictures of her, she's on tumblr, but I'm not supposed to post links, so just pm me if you really really want to see.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three  
><span>Tainted<span>

"Mark… it's not that big of a deal." Zoey started with a sigh, reaching out toward him. Mark cringed away from the woman. She dropped her hand. "…We get fresh blood every other day. We can supply you. You don't even need to tell anyone." She smiled at Harry, "And Harold can help you. That's what roommates are for."

"Just…" The dark haired teen bit his lip, "Just go, leave me alone." He fell onto his back, rolling to face away from the other three nonhumans.

Zoey frowned, standing up straight to turn to the other two inhabitants. "…Stevie-Rae, let's go." She sighed, walking from the room. After a moment's hesitation, the red vampyre followed.

Harry stared at his roommate with a concerned frown, his fingers playing over themselves nervously, as if he wanted to say something but didn't dare. He took a breath to speak, but Mark cut in.

"Just don't talk. Let me just…" His voice slowly died, broken by the tears that streamed from his eyes, clogging his throat. He cursed himself in his mind, he hated showing weakness to other people. Knowing Harry, he'd probably take it as trust or whatever. In truth, the whole change had sent him into a spiral of pain and regret. He sighed.

There was a long silence, and Mark had finally begun to fall asleep when something warm touched his back.

"…What the fuck did I say about the touching stuff?" He hissed.

Harry hesitated before he hugged Mark tightly. "…You look like you really need a hug." He whispered softly, "Please don't shove me away. I want to be friends, and I want you to be able to come to me if you're in trouble."

Mark let out a long, drawn out sigh. "…If you stop hugging me, you can share a bed." He muttered.

Harry grinned, leaning back to lay on Mark's bed properly, careful not to touch him.

Slowly, Mark began to dose off.

It was dark, but thick, as if her were floating in tar. He tried to look around, but his eyes were blind, or perhaps there was merely nothing to see. He groped forward and found he could move. It was sluggish and hard, but he managed it. He scrambled forward through the black nothingness, trying to find… what? He wasn't quite sure. He just… had to keep moving. If he stopped… something bad would happen. He wasn't sure what.

His foot touched ground and he fell to the floor. It was still dark, but the air seemed too thin until it was almost normal.

In front of him was a moonlit forest, or rather it was a moonlit clearing that was surrounded by forest. A woman was sitting in the middle, seeming to glow with her own beauty. He couldn't quite focus on her face, as if it wasn't fully formed, or perhaps his eyes just couldn't focus on her beauty.

"Where… am I?" he asked, though he quickly lost interest in the answer as he watched his words wave through the air as colour, caught on some lazy bounding wind, carrying the blues and greens of his words.

The woman smiled, or at least he thought she did. Somehow he just knew what she was doing, even though he couldn't recognize her visually. "Welcome, child, you're currently residing within your room, peacefully asleep." Her words were different, they shimmered, beautiful and colourless, almost not even there, like the woman who spoke them.

"Asleep?" Mark frowned, "So… this is a dream?"

"Not quite, my son." The woman chuckled, and the night seemed to join in on her amusement, the air rippling with her musical, joyous laughter. "I have come to warn you."

"Warn me?" The teen scoffed, "About what? A science test about the chemical balance of blood?"

The beautiful woman frowned, shaking her head. "No, child." She sighed, and the trees creaked with it. "Your mark, I'm sure you've noticed." She gestured to the mirror that hadn't been there before.

Mark looking into it and his fledgling mark seemed to burn from his flesh, appearing much more obvious than it was in real life.

"…Yeah? So? Does it mean I'm… special or something?" He sighed, rubbing the mark.

"…No, Mark." The woman stated simply as the teen pulled his hand away, covered in black tar. "You're sick, and not the kind of sick that will cancel your change and bring you close to me before your time."

Mark tried to wipe off the tar, but it bubbled and spread slowly up his arm. He screamed, his attempts to get it off becoming more frantic and desperate the faster it crawled up his arm.

"Your hatred for vampyre kind has… regrettably, affected your change." She continued, "If you don't accept yourself for who and what you will become, you will become something even worse than the thing you fear to be."

Mark, who was now entirely encased in the tar, looked up at the mirror again.

The sight he saw shocked him. A man was staring back, but… he didn't look anything like a man. He was tall, with long black hair. He was wearing the same clothes as Mark, and but unlike Mark, he was smiling. It was a broken smile, the kind of smile that taints a man's lips when he's lost his mind and can think of nothing more than the needs that drive him. Also unlike Mark, he had a tail, it spread at the end, making a rounded diamond shape. It swung happily from side to side, reminiscent to a cat when it sees a bird on the other side of the glass window. His hands were clawed, long, dark talons sprouted from his long fingers. His skin was covered in that same black tar, but it was part of him, and shined like scales. Barely visible was the traditional vampire mask tattoo, but it was shaped like curled, lined horns, framing his hazel eyes to make him look even more demonic, the mark, of course, was also black, making the rest of the strange man's body look faintly blue. This… creature also had wings, large, dragon-like wings. They folded neatly on his back, created even more menace to his overall look.

Mark jumped, stepping away from the mirror.

"Look, Mark, look at what you're turning yourself into." The woman sighed, appearing next to Mark, holding his shoulders gently. "This is what hatred causes. It's turned into a poison that will alter you to something even I can't help." She gestured to the mirror-man. "You will be a demon."

He turned around rapidly, swinging his arms out to shove the woman away. "That's not fair! I didn't even want to change at all!" He shrieked, kicking the mirror in.

It broke, and the man in the mirror still stood there. Its eyes darkened with pleasure, taking a step forward now that it was free.

Mark screamed, running away from the creature.

"…Hatred is not the life you're born with, it is the one you create on your own." The woman's words echoed through the air as the shadow of the monster in the mirror hovered over Mark. "Please, change your views so you can lead a better life."

The man in the mirror leapt onto the teen and he shrieked, feeling his spine rip from his body as the black thing began its feast.

He jumped, his eyes shooting open and he gasped, frozen in his bed where he lay alone. Slowly, he relaxed, his skin covered in sweat.

It… had been a dream. Or… was it? he frowned. It didn't feel like it had been a dream. He touched his back where the creature had ripped out his spine.

He felt liquid, bone, and ripped flesh. His heart stopped and his eyes widened, he took in air to scream as he sat up.

Nothing. The bed was clean, his back intact. He felt the spot where just second before had been nothing but a nest of ruined flesh. It was fine, though he could feel his racing heartbeat through the flesh. He relaxed once more, though the effect was not lost. It hadn't been a dream.

And… that woman.

His eyes widened once more. Had that… been the goddess? He tried to think back to what she looked like and found that he couldn't remember. All he remembered was her warning, clear and plain as if she was still speaking it to him now. He needed to learn how to accept himself for what he was.

He grimaced, rubbing his eyes with a groan. He couldn't even keep his human views and emotions! How could this possibly be fair? Changed physically in such a way that he can't even keep his own thoughts? That was… inhuman.

Of course, vampyres weren't human. Maybe free will to them was something different.

He sighed, getting up slowly, tugging at his clothes which had gotten turned and wrinkled from him squirming in his sleep. He padded over to the bathroom, closing the door with his foot. He leaned over the sink, turning it one to splash water on his face. He sighed once more, looking up at his reflection.

He shrieked, slamming against the back wall, knocking his head, making him close his eyes. He looked back at the mirror once more. A frown took his lips as he reached out a hand to touch the glass. He… clearly saw the man in the mirror again. When he looked back, the man was gone, replaced by his familiar reflection, only adorning the black moon. He looked pale, worried and fearful. His lips were pulled tight with stress, his eyes strained to stay attentive to everything around him.

He ran his fingers through his black hair, his hazel eyes staring at the other pair in the mirror.

"Fuck." He huffed, "I'm going fucking crazy." He flipped the toilet lid down so he could sit on it, rubbing his eyes.

The door opened outside as Harry returned. "…Mark?" He called upon seeing the empty bed.

The younger fledgling paused, debating about saying anything. He sighed, "I'm in the bathroom." He called. After all, eventually Harry would look in the bathroom.

"Oh." The blond smiled as he poked his head in the bathroom. "I brought you… um… breakfast from Professor Redbird."

"…You mean blood?" Mark's eyes narrowed.

Harold blushed. "…Um… yeah." He walked in with a bag of medical blood, placing it on the table. "I'll just… leave it here." He quickly walked out of the room.

Mark frowned, feeling a small urge to call after Harry, to apologize for being such an ass. However, when the door to the dorm closed, he sighed. He stared at the bag on the counter before hesitantly grabbing it. He squished it in his hands, making the liquid swish grotesquely through his fingers inside the bag. He sighed, biting a tiny hole in it at the top corner so he could drink.

Once more, the flavour exploded through his senses, making him shudder. He closed his eyes, using his tongue to open the hole wider. Eventually, the bag was emptied, and Mark found himself at a loss as to why. It had been so full, surely there should have been more…

He rubbed his hand over his face, feeling disgusted and horrified once more. He needed to accept this… this… feeling? This look? This life? He shook his head, tossing the bag in the trash. He couldn't do it. It was too revolting. Too… inhuman. He found himself longing for his home. He missed the quite woods surrounding his cabin. He missed his coffee maker and the quiet, loneliness he'd grown used to upon leaving his parents. All he wanted to do right that moment was run home, curl up in his favourite comforter and just wait until he coughed up his lungs and died.

He felt a cruel smile touch his lips and he stood. Well, he might as well explore the school he'd be damned to for the next few years of his life.

* * *

><p><strong><span>Review Challenges!<span>******

**Should I focus more on romance or adventure? Either way I will have both eventually.  
><strong>What do you think of my variation of the goddess?  
>What did you think the Man in the Mirror?<br>What sexuality do you think Harry i- I mean, Still like Harry? u  
>Can you come up with any predictions?<p>

Howdy guys!  
>Hope you liked this installment of Mark's Marked adventure! :D<p>

Yeah, Harry's a little gay but I can't decide if he is or not. It won't really have anything to do with the story at this point, I just like to have all my facts straight on my characters, like how Dumbledore is gay but it never actually mattered to the story.

**I DON'T KNOW IF ANYONE NOTICED, BUT, THIS STORY HAS A LOT TO DO WITH THE WAY PEOPLE VIEW THEMSELVES AND HOW SELF HATRED IS REALLY DAMAGING TO A PERSON'S BODY AND MIND.  
><strong>I mean what, haha?  
>Me, write a story with real meaning and reasoning? <strong>HAHA.<strong>

I like what I did with the goddess, though. I liked how in the original, she was very supportive and loving, but she was also helping the hero defeat the evil. I like to imagine this is how she treated Neferet when she first started to listen to Kalona. Invading her dreams to warn her of an evil that would damage her soul and body greatly if she didn't start dealing with it immediately.

HAHA, BUT THAT WOULD MEAN THAT I PLAN FOR MARK TO BE A VILLAIN, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...  
><strong>-heavy breathing-<strong>

It's not like I have a hardcore-rockhard-boner for internal conflict and the great struggle of the mind.

NOPE, NOT ME.

in any case, I really love this story and how it's turning out, so I hope to get pretty far in it before something horrible happens and I can't finish.  
><strong>ormaybeI'llactuallyfinishthisstory.<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Found

Chapter Four  
><span>Found

Throughout the school was an assortment of er, one would suppose, interesting rooms and classes. One of which was spells and rituals. Really they were just praying for things to happen and they did. Some spell. They also had their own church where they forced worship on all the students. Mark snorted up at the goddess's statue. He couldn't help feeling that what he was doing was wrong, and that he should love the statue woman, and that pissed him off. He didn't like the stereo-type white-people god when he was human and he didn't like the vampyre god now. There was also a cafeteria which housed some of the most healthy, yet tasted good, foods he'd ever seen. Too bad he couldn't eat any of it.

Numerous halls and classrooms lined the walls of the castle-like building. He found the female dorm as well as a rec hall and a creepy old tree by some kind of trap door. He took care to remember where the trap door was, he might find use for that.

Along his exploration, he found near ridiculous amounts of cats. They were everywhere, following kids around, laying about the castle, or even bothering cats in class. No one seemed to care that people's pets were roaming around like they owned the place. It was possibly the only thing he really didn't like about cats. Among a few other things involving his shoes and some rather unpleasant looking cat vomit.

He sighed, slumping into a chair in the cafeteria at lunch. He glanced at the doors and found them labeled 'dining hall'. Sounded like something out of prison or a prissy finishing school.

He'd been debating about getting some food just to look normal when a small group of teens walked over. A few of them had a woman on a chariot on their chests with a bunch of stars, some had weird wings, he assumed that meant what year they were in. His own was some stupid maze.

The leader was a girl with incredibly long brunette hair. Her eyes were a warm chestnut colour, and he really couldn't ignore the very lovely curves of her body. She wore a smile full of warmth and confidence, and a sapphire crescent moon adorned her forehead. Behind her stood ice- the girl. She had white blood hair a the palest blue eyes he'd ever seen, couple that with milky white skin and you had a god damn ghost teenager. She looked small and shy, though she held herself sort of like a ballerina, her crescent was also sapphire. The last was a male, he was tall, strong, and attractive, he supposed. He sure did look like someone who should be on TV. His own hair was strawberry blond, his eyes a lighter, pale brown, his mark, unlike the girls, was red. He and the brunette had the woman on a chariot and the ice-girl had the wings. Understandable, she did look younger than miss confidence and mister chiselled handsome-butt.

"You're Mark, right?" Brownie started, swinging her hips to a stop in front of Mark, who nodded. "Well, I'm the leader of the Dark Daughters and Sons."

Mark felt like he should probably know who they were, so he just shrugged and muttered, "Cool." Hoping they wouldn't start a fight or something stupid. Did vampyre schools have gangs?

It seemed, however, that miss confidence didn't really care, as she gave a haughty swish of her hair with a laugh. "Very, these are some of the council members, Drake," She gestured to pretty boy, "And Lynn" She gestured at ice-princess. "I'm Celeste."

Oh, fuck she sounded so stuck up. Mark sighed as he stood, sticking out his hand to shake her hand. "Awesome, good to meet you. I don't mean to be rude, but I'm really not a people person. If you want to know more about me and how unpleasant I tend to be, feel free to talk to my teacher-baby-sitter thing. Stevie-Rae." He waited for her to grab his hand, but she just stared at it.

Slowly, a smile returned to her lips before she gently pushed Mark's hand down. "Aha, you don't seem very familiar with the way things are run around here. Do you even know what the Dark Daughters are?" She asked.

Mark supressed another sigh, running a hand through his hair as he shrugged, "No, not really. I assumed it would have been best just to let you drone on about how awesome you were instead of getting yelled at for not knowing something."

The smart ass known as Drake snorted. "It's a group of upstanding students who follow the rules of the five elements. Authentic for air, faithful for fire, wise for water, empathetic for earth and sincere for spirit." He explained.

Since when was spirit an element? He brushed the though off as he smiled, "Well that sounds like a nice place for people who like other people." He shrugged, "I suppose it's like… a school council thing, right? You have to greet all the new kids?" He paused, "Or… are you interest in my weird mark?"

Celeste nodded, "It's our job to make everyone feel at home, but yes, we were curious about your mark as well."

Well at least they were honest, he thought with a frown. "Well I don't know what the fuck is up with it other than your goddess is playing a really shitty joke." There, technically not a lie, everything sounds believable if it's not a complete lie.

Celeste didn't seem to feel that way when she placed her hands on her hips. "Yeah, well, my mentor thinks it would be a good idea to invite you, so I'm inviting you to join the Dark Daughters and Sons." She waved her hand through the air as if she couldn't care less.

"No." Mark stated firmly, sitting back in his seat. "As I said, I'm not really a people person and I'm not going to join a social group bent on making everyone's day a bit brighter just because some jumped-up old bat decided it was 'a good idea' to have me join."

The brunette seemed to puff up with rage, making the dark marked boy smirk. She opened her mouth several times, most likely to tell him off, but couldn't seem to think of the right words.

"…What, cat got your tongue, darling? I'm afraid you won't ever find it, there's way to many fucking cats that might have it." Mark purred.

The girl gave an outraged, "OH!" before she stomped off, calling insults and unfriendly words to the air as her groupies followed, making Mark laugh to himself. He hoped more people like that would talk to hi-

"Hi Mark!"

Mark sighed, turning to his ever-happy roommate. "Hi Harry." He muttered, glancing at the bag the fledgling was carrying. "…Playing meals on wheels again, huh?"

"Yup! You know, you should really get used to taking these with you." he leaned over, whispering to the dark haired teen, "What if you get really hungry and go crazy like the red fledglings?"

"Maybe someone will put me down if I off a couple other fledglings in my raging hunger." Mark smirked, making Harry gasp and pull back.

"Don't say things like that!" The older teen huffed, "I don't want you to die!"

"At least one of us does." Mark chuckled as he grabbed the back and hid it in his own shoulder-hung bag. "Don't carry these around. I don't want people to think I'm weird, on top of rude."

"You aren't rude, you're just a cat." Harry grinned foolishly.

Mark felt his eye twitch again. Geez, this guy was irritating. "Stop it."

"Stop what?" Harry asked, his blond head tilting to the side as he sat opposite to Mark.

"That." Mark frowned, "Stop being so… gay. You act like you stepped out a rainbow candy waterfall."

"That would be cool, though." The blond pouted.

"No it wouldn't!" Mark huffed, making his roommate laugh. "How do you even function acting like a little kid all the time?"

"I dunno." Harry smiled, "I just like being happy, it feels better than being sad."

"…If you weren't so full of shit I'd say that was pretty deep." Mark snorted, rolling his eyes. "So what's with the Dark Daughters and Sons? Celeste and her band of misfits came to invite me into their in group."

"What?!" Harry burst, "Really?! They almost never invite… ah, well… um." He shifted, looking embarrassed and shy. "…People who aren't like them…"

"So, weird anti-social teenage boys with retarded marks on their forehead?" Mark asked with a smirk. "It's alright, I turned her down. Like I'd ever want to be part of some spazz group of stupid teenagers. I wouldn't even get along with them. They like drugs and booze and parties. I like sitting in my room blasting Colours of The Wind and writing fiction."

"…Disney music?" Harry frowned, "That doesn't… really seem like something you'd be into."

"We were all kids once." Mark shrugged, "I just watched certain movies too many times and now I can't stop listening to the songs."

"I like Hakuna Matata." Harry smiled.

"My god, if you weren't around I'd be the dorkiest kid here." The dark haired teen laughed.

"Wait, you said no?" The older fledgling frowned, "Why did you say no?! This could be a perfect way for you to accept your new life!"

Mark flinched at how similar Harry was sounding to the goddess in his dream. He frowned and stood, looking away from his roommate. "I'm going out. Thanks for the blood." He hurried from the room, not bothering to look back at Harry's confused expression.

He felt kind of stupid for leaving without a reason, but… he felt like that… woman… was doing this on purpose. He was sure people would think, 'oh, well, she just loves you and wants to help' but constantly nagging someone to stop thinking a certain way wasn't love. He had to get out of there, escape, even if only for a few hours.

He ran into his bathroom, slamming the door as he looked at himself. He cringed at his reflection. The mark seemed to be a stain on his face. Like waking up with a rainbow penis tattoo across your face after a really good party. He opened the mirror to find an assortment of makeup. He frowned, not expecting this from Harry before he took a closer look. He'd never seen students outside before… maybe they had to wear this makeup? It was certainly thick enough, and there was two, one of Harry's skin ton, and one eerily close to his own. He could be a normal human again, if only for a few hours.

A bit of hope took his features before he slathered on the makeup, concealing his mark with much more than normal, as his mark was far darker and harder to hide than the normal, blue coloured marks.

He stared at the mirror, stared at what used to be his life. A weak, almost sad smile tugged at his lips as he watched the pure, blind desire in his eyes. He couldn't accept what he'd become, not even the threat of becoming a real monster would convince him that being this… this thing could be… acceptable. He wiped his eye with the palm of his hand before he hurried out, grabbing his duffel bag of things he liked to have with him, pencils, notebooks, deodorant, a book, hairbrush, pocket knife, and all sorts of little things he might need.

He hurried out of the dorm and toward the front gates. He moved at an incredible pace, almost running as he got closer to the entrance to the school.

Once he got passed the boundary, he ran. He wasn't sure why, maybe he was trying to run from his problem, but it felt right to get away from that place. So he ran and ran and ran until he reached the mall, where he finally calmed down and leaned against the wall of a local clothing store.

Panting, a soft laugh flitted from his lips as he slid to the ground. He was gone, no one would know he was a fledgling. He was Mark, that weird dark kid that lives alone once again. Maybe not even that. Just a random human sixteen year old. He pulled out a small mirror he kept in his bag for whatever occasion, primarily for looking around corners to see if an ex, or enemy was there. He once again looked at his human-looking face. Sure, he was a lot more attractive than when he'd been human, but he could ignore that. He could ignore a lot of things so long as the boisterous, very showy mark wasn't on his face.

He was staring with such intensity into the mirror that he didn't notice a pair of teens walking along that had spotted him.

"Wow, someone must be narcissistic." A girl laughed. Mark looked up to finally notice the twosome.

One girl was very short, looked about fourteen years old, wearing a loose shirt with an anime girl on it, one of those swag-hat things decorated with adventure time characters, and skinny jeans. She also had straight blond hair that framed her face decently. Her blue eyes were amused and kind of childish, as if she always wanted to play the role of the cute girl. Her petite hand were wearing fingerless gloves that were bright pink in colour. He was not impressed.

The other looked very much like his own age, and shared a similar face to the other girl, perhaps they were sisters. This one was a brunette, with clearly artificially curled hair, though it did look pretty as it bounced around her face. She looked a lot more confident and was wearing much less… themed clothing compared to the first girl. She also had a hat on, but it was one of those strange hipster hats where it was almost like a doily that bunched around your hair so they didn't fall off. It was light brown and complimented her hair pretty well. She also wore a green, vine-pattern vest over a long-sleeve, v-neck shirt. Her green skirt was perhaps a little more short than any parent would prefer, but it showed her lover, knee-sock clad legs very well. He smiled at her, his good mood making him feel a bit more sociable than usual.

"You would be too if you just started to look like a normal kid after moving schools." He chuckled.

The younger girl gasped, "You just moved here?!" She burst with a very enthusiastic giggle. "We did too! It's the first weekend we've been here so we're exploring around Tulsa!"

"When did you move here?" The older girl smiled.

"Er, well, I lived here before, I just… lived a bit farther away." He pointed far off into the distance. "I lived by myself way out there for a long time. I graduated through an online government course so I didn't have to leave the house expect to get food and stuff." He shrugged, "But I ah… had an accident that landed me in a… private school." He sighed, "It's… a stupid, long, painful story that I don't really like talking about."

The brunette nodded, "I completely understand. We had to move here because of stupid family bullshit with our mom. We're actually from Canada."

"Canada, huh?" he chuckled, "That's a lot farther than a cabin in the woods."

"I should think so." She smirked, "Since you kind of know this place, how about you show us around?" She asked, biting her lip slightly, as if to look hopeful and cute.

A little pessimistic voice in the back of Mark's head screamed at him that he should tell them to fuck off and leave him alone, but some part of him wanted to cling to them. They thought he was normal, and seemed to believe him about the private school bullshit. He could come back, hang out with them, be human again…

He smiled, "I'd love to show you around." He jerked his thumb behind him, at the mall. "I can show you were to get all the important stuff like pillows, blankets, food, and stuff, but if you want to really In stores for the popular kids, well…" he laughed, "I couldn't help you there."

"We can go on an adventure together to find them, then." The brunette laughed, "I'm Lily, and this is my sister Caroline."

"Just call me Carry." The blond giggled.

"I'm Mark." The fledgling nodded, "Nice to meet you guys."

Lily linked her arm with Mark's and her sister's before leading them down the sidewalk humming 'We're Off To See The Wizard', making Mark laugh. 

* * *

><p><strong><span>REVIEW CHALLENGES:<span>**

What did you think of what I did with the Dark Daughters?

What about Lily and her sister?

Do you have a theory of what might happen with the Dark Daughters/Lily/Anything else?

How does the story feel in general? I'd love a bit of feedback. (And I mean a bit, I'm terrible with harsh critics.)  
><span>

How do you feel about Mark now that you know a bit more about him?

AAAAWWWWW MAAAAAAANNNN...  
>Shits gettin real, characters are being introduced and my friends dog is sniffing my armpit while I write!<p>

I'm getting really into this story and I hope you guys are too. Though, honestly, I think I only like writing this story so much because of a comic on smackjeeves called Transfusions. GO READ IT NOW. IT'S FUCKING AWESOME. jaghreghsnjignrtjk  
>-<strong>more heavy breathing<strong>-

**GODAMMIT GUYS I STILL DON'T KNOW IF I SHOULD ROMANCE/PORN OR ADVENTURE/LESS PORN.**


	5. Chapter 5

The dark haired fledgling lay on his bed in his room late in the day going over the last few hours of his new life. Already, he'd found a way to live his human life once again. That made him smile, though he wasn't sure how to hide it from his roommate and probing psychic teachers. Stevie Rae had come back to visit him again. When he'd returned to his prison, she'd tracked him down, which was funny, since she'd really simply known where he would be and waited there for him. The vampyres' ways of knowing things made him feel violated. He wasn't even safe in his own head, then again, thanks to their goddess, he was very well aware of that.

The blond country bumpkin had given him a piece of paper of all his classes. Apparently he was going to start attending school the following week day. He'd sighed, taking the paper without another word, as he'd been in a good mood. He supposed that'd been a bad idea, as she probably thought he was warming up to her now. Not even in the slightest.

He rolled onto his side, going over the schedule once more. It'd been so long since he'd last been in school. He'd started off in school, learning about colours and shapes and spelling, but when it'd come apparent to everyone that he was above such a petty level of learning, his parents had yanked him out of school to learn on his own. At first it had been really fun, but he quickly grew tired of the regular schooling his parents were giving him and moved on to learn his own way. He'd spent most of his time in the local library, where he'd eventually learned how out of touch he'd been with people. Sure, he'd been somewhat nice to people that talked to him, but they… they acted so strangely. He even tried to be normal a few times, collecting enough information to string a few petty conversations together so that he could seem less strange to his peers. That, of course, didn't work, since it was much harder to think before speaking, for him. They'd say something, and without thinking of the proper way to answer, he would say his real opinion and once again be that weird kid in the library. It had been then he'd learned that if they couldn't bother to try and learn his ways, as he'd tried for them for so many long months, they weren't worth his time. He'd run away from home then, living on his own in the forest, buying books with the money his parents left him, figuring he'd do well enough on his own, mixed with the money he'd earned through anonymous writing, finishing his schooling online. And years later, the Tracker found him and marked him against his will.

He sighed, looking through the classes. He had something called sociology. That sounded… social. Next was spells and rituals. He doubted they did anything more than lighting herbs on fire and chatting with their damned greedy goddess for half an hour. Lunch came next, and then Literature and Spanish. He hated learning other languages. Especially Spanish. He didn't dislike the language itself, nor the people, but it was just too… hot. Speedy, warm, red, he didn't like it. he liked English. From Britain, a nice cold rainy place where people could sit in front of a nice fire and read a damn book instead of leaving the house into insane temperatures. Willingly. His last class almost made him snort in derision. Equestrian studies. A class about horses? First all these cats and now horses. Big, stinking beasts that could kill you in an instant if they wanted to. Yeah, sure, they were pretty, but it bugged him that there were no dog studies, or sea-creature studies, or anything involving any other animal. Seemed a bit biased. Then again, this whole place did seem kind of biased. Sexist as it was, though most wouldn't see it. he didn't care that women had power, hell, sometimes he liked the idea of a women-run world, but that wasn't really any more fair than what the humans were doing. It would be nice if for once a powerful group or species could, he didn't know, make an actual paradise without hating each other or being unfairly biased and giving certain people less wages, or deciding someone's worth based on how big a piece of their anatomy was.

He sighed again, ignoring his views of the world he used to be a part of. That was his old life, now he had to deal with the ridiculous religious-politics the vampyres functioned with. He sat up, gently moving the curtain on his window enough to let him see outside. It was still a cloudy day, but it was steadily getting darker. He had a perfect view of the statue woman with upraised hands in front of that temple thing the vampyres liked to use for worship. He wondered if he'd be forced to go there sometime. The full moon was coming up soon, wasn't that when they did their elements circle casting thing? He sighed, resting his head on the pillow beside him.

His bedside table was adorned by a lovely wine glass, along with a little baggie filled with that exotic liquid he'd slowly begun to covet. As he watched the liquid bag, his mouth filled with saliva, his stomach churning hungrily. Would it always be like this? Did the regular vampyres have to deal with this constant, nagging hunger? He groaned and sat up once more, grabbing the bag. He held it in his hands, staring down at his reddened hands through the thick, plastic material. Maybe it wasn't so bad. At least it tasted good. It wasn't bad for him. It was… like a drug that made him feel better. Like if… if humans got addicted to… vegetables. Red vegetables… that came from other humans.

He sighed, slapping a hand to his face. "I'm horrible." Mark muttered to himself as he brought the bag to his face. He carefully ripped the bag open, upending it, wanting to intake it as fast as possible so he didn't have to think about it. Ignoring the disappointment that plagued his still thirsty body when he ran out so quickly, he stood and entered the bathroom.

He undressed, pausing by the mirror to look at his pale form once again. God, the black mark on his face looked strange. And he was so pale, more white than he'd been when he was human. He'd at least gone outside during the day as a human. He gently touched his chest. It was strange, looking at himself now. He was more beautiful than before, but… he felt as if he'd give up anything in order to be human again, even any kind of good looks.

A smile tugged at his reddened lips as the thought of that girl and his little sister swam through his mind. Maybe not all his good looks. He pulled off his pants, batman boxers and socks to hop in the shower, letting the water remove the bits of blood that had missed his lips.

The following evening, he found himself in a classroom with windows facing the dark courtyard of the school, and again, the temple they used for worship. He sighed, sitting at the very back of the dimly lit classroom.

Soon, in walked the teacher with her long dark hair, flowing gown and ridiculous number of intricate tattoos. She was proud and held herself with an air of confidence. High Priestess Redbird looked to be in her element, helping people to learn, or whatever. She started a lengthy lecture about various women of power who were either subjugated by humans (Usually men) or revered and then caught in a war and raped, or something. Mark had no interest. Sure, to a girl this had to be incredibly interesting, but to him it was just an extremist feminist going on and on about the unfairness of (male) humans. It did, however, bug him that she never seemed to talk about male vampyres, unless in passing, or mentioning an accomplishment like a movie, art, or music.

Of course, in this predominantly female-controlled community, males wouldn't have been put in a place where they would be subjugated or raped. They said it was better than the humans' way of life because they appreciated the men in their culture. This was bullshit, because the humans were far more equal than that. Not everyone was treated equally, of course, there were many men and women who despised each other and constantly tried to take away rights from each other, but the women were certainly more than just appreciated.

And Mark certainly appreciated Lily.

Mark was then caught up in thoughts of her. Her human face, lively, pink skin, her amazing lips and eyes. He sighed, smiling out the window like a dork. He didn't even notice that Professor Redbird had been trying to get his attention.

"Mark!" She cried at last, making him look up suddenly.

"Yeah, what?" Mark replied, feeling irritated at his day dream being so rudely interrupted.

"Were you listening? I asked if you knew about the-"

"No, I haven't, and I probably don't." Mark sighed, standing up. "I thought this was supposed to be school, not let's-talk-about-all-the-bitchy-famous-women for an hour. So not only are we thrust into a retarded culture we didn't want anything to do with, but we're also forced to accept some bullshit classes that teach us about shit that doesn't matter? Are you fucking kidding me? Doesn't anyone take math or something here? Or do we just learn about how fucking sexist you all are?" By the end of his statement, he was yelling over the uproar he was getting from the other students. Professor Redbird, of course, hadn't joined in the fray; she merely looked at Mark sadly. As if she knew he was slowly killing himself with the hatred of his own new species.

Sick of her expression, he grabbed his bags and left, shoving passed a few students who seemed to think he gave a damn about their opinions. He went outside, too sick of the school to stay inside another second. He walked over to a ruined, decrepit looking tree that was a split in half, burned, and looked as though it had gone through a great deal of terrible things. He sat under it, wishing he had anyone he could call or, anything really, to just… talk and calm down. He would go and see if he couldn't find Lily or her sister, but it was early in the morning, she'd be fast asleep. He sighed, running his fingers through his hair in a motion that showed just how stressed he was.

"You okay?" Came a voice that made Mark jump. He looked up to find Drake, the red marked fledgling. "You look tense as fuck."

"…I am." The younger fledgling sighed again, relaxing his hands. "What are you doing here?"

"Our High Priestess asked us to come back and ask you to reconsider joining the Dark Daughters and Sons." Drake explained, "She was really adamant."

"Like I care. I don't want to join your damn club, okay?" Mark snapped, "I don't even want to become a vampyre."

"…Neither did a lot of people."

Mark frowned, looking at Drake with growing confusion. "Well yes, of course, but… why can't we say no? We don't get any choice in the change, and I don't think that's fair. I made it quite plainly clear to the tracker that I did not want to be changed."

Drake slowly sat down next to the dark haired teen. "…Do you mind telling me what happened when you were marked?"

Mark paused, staring at the blond with a frown that seemed to be growing. "Why do you want to know?"

"Because I want to prove that not all fledglings or vampyres are shitty people, like you seem to think." The older teen explained simply. The answer had taken Mark aback, his confusion only serving to get worse.

"…Well, I was sitting in my lounge, writing one of my stories when he knocked on the door. I looked through the peep hole and told him to fuck off. He ignored that and said some stupid line about night choosing thee, or something. He broke in, which pissed me off, and I told him to leave me alone because I didn't want to be marked, for any reason, and I grabbed my shot gun, which I had hidden in the room. He did something, and I guess that's when I was marked, because I started to pass out. I got a shot in him before I passed out. When I woke up it was in the ambulance going to the school."

"He marked me when I was asleep." Drake stated suddenly. "I had to leave my parents, my girlfriend, and my dog behind. They didn't want anything to do with vampyres."

Mark stared at the blond. He'd thought he was just a pile of muscle meant for Celeste to stare at, but this deeper side made him… uncomfortable.

"And then I rejected the change and I thought how unfair it was. How could the goddess do that to me after she'd taken away everything else? But then I came back a red fledgling, and, well, I'm better, at least." The older fledgling shrugged, smiling down at Mark. "I'm just glad my mark is normal." He added with a smirk.

"Oh shut up." The dark haired fledgling huffed. "Why don't you hate everything about this place, then?" He asked softly, "For ruining your life?"

"My old life wasn't all that good. I'm cared for and loved for who and what I am here, whereas before I had to work so hard just to get any kind of praise for anything. I couldn't be a singer or a teacher or whatever back home. I had such high expectations that it would have been impossible for me to be what I wanted. Now, I can just be myself." Drake smiled.

"…What do you want to be?" Mark asked.

"A painter." The red fledgling explained, "I want to paint beautiful pictures for everyone to see. What about you?"

"Well… I write." He answered, "I write romance and adventure sorts of stories."

"See? You're not such a bad guy, I don't really understand why you make an ass of yourself rather than try and make the best of your situation. Being a vampyre isn't all that bad. You live a lot longer and you look a lot better, and you even have a better life, usually." Drake explained.

"Yeah, well, I wanted my human life." Mark hissed.

"You can't have it anymore, so you might as well get used to this one!" Drake burst suddenly. "You have so much to benefit from this, why can't you just enjoy it?"

The younger teen glared at the blond, and finally looked away. "Whatever."

"Hey." Drake frowned, grabbing Mark's face in his hands to turn him toward himself. "What about this, you let me paint you and show you the beauty of what you've become with this new life, and I'll stop bugging you. Deal?" The dark haired teen stared at Drake with a frown.

"I don't give a shit if you-"

"Deal?" Drake interrupted.

"…Fine." Mark hissed, shoving the other fledgling's hands away from his face. "Whatever. I'll come over on the weekend."

"Good." Drake smiled, "I'll see you then. Maybe you'll get used to your life by then." He gave the disgruntled teen a wave before he left, returning to the school.

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><p><span><strong>REVIEW CHALLENGES<br>**

**What are your thoughts on Mark now?  
>What about Drake?<br>Do you have any ships yet, or is it too soon?**

**Is there anyone you're looking forward to seeing?**

**Any predictions on where the story is going?**

**What do you think about Mark's double life?**

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><p><strong><em>GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE.<em>**

I have a plot now! YEAH. Won't ruin it, of course, but hoooooooooo shiet, son, I love it.

I know I take a while to update, but I work part time and it's hard to write for long spaces of time, so I do short bursts and try to get as much crammed into a chapter as I can so it's a decent read.


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